Lonnie M. Randolph Senator Indiana Senate 200 West Washington Street Indianapolis, Indiana 46204 Dear Senator Randolph: I am writing about Indiana’s involvement with the death penalty. The death penalty in Indiana has been around since the early 1800’s. The thought of putting another human being to death is hard to envision. I believe that there are some things that can be done in replace of this. According to the Indiana Public Defender Council, website, nearly ⅔ of the world’s nation has abolished the death penalty. In 1972 the US Supreme Court, in the case of Furman Vs. Georgia stopped all state death penalty sentences. They believed that the death penalty went against the Eighth Amendment’s cruel and unusual clause because they allowed a capricious infliction of death and could lead to prejudice and biased factors that could affect the sentencing. At the time the case took place seven men, who were sentenced to the death penalty, sentences were overturned and abridged to life in prison. As of right now there are thirteen men and one woman awaiting death row in Indiana. With the right amount of support, I have no doubt that the same can happen. …show more content…
An argument that has been made many times before, but has a solid point, is that the government is sending the wrong message. With the death penalty in place, it sends the message that it is okay to kill people who have killed other people. With that being said it opens the doors for other citizens to take it into their own hands. If it is alright for the government to kill murderers, they can use this reasoning to justify killing that person because they want